Now that the county fair is over we have been weaning the babies off and have been enjoying fresh goat milk around the house. Below is my milking set up in the barn. My barn isn’t super large so I use a surplus stall to be able to keep in whoever is milking and keep out everyone else.
Vanilla Bean knows the routine and is normally waiting at the door to let her in. We generally collect anywhere 5-6 cups of milk a day. I use a liquid measuring cup for milking and pour in excess into a large canning jar. Vanilla Bean gets impatient and will sometime kick. In the early days we lost a lot of milk. Once we have milked her we strain the milk through a coffee filter and will pasteurize it over the stove. Instead of milking jars the large canning jars with a flip lid works great otherwise the plastic screw on lids.
For fun we have been making lots of ice cream. I received a ice cream maker so the fun is in experimenting with different recipes. So far I have successfully made chocolate chocolate chip, lemon, and strawberry. I am still trying to perfect my vanilla.
I found on amazon these great ice cream containers.
My next mission is either caramel or some mint.
Chick with a Whistle Farms 